Camping deja vu

Subjective opinion about the hike "Water and Stones" June 21-26, 2009.
Perhaps I am not strong in the epistolary genre, but I will present my subjective opinion and review of the hike. In principle, all the reports are very different, but at the same time very similar - well, if only because the story goes, plus or minus, about the same places (for example, on every part of the route, someone’s description of this place from reviews popped up in my head, and I’ve read so many of them that it feels like I’ve already been there... more than once)

I won’t be original – let’s start with some background. I’ve been planning to go on a hike in the mountainous Crimea for about 10 years, I’ve been going there especially actively for the last 5 years, and now it’s happiness, finally that very “next time” for which all this was postponed has arrived. Considering that in most cases the hike was impossible due to the lack of a hiking company, including a person who knew where to go and how to get back later, I started looking for all this in a “ready-made” form organized by someone (well, here, of course, one cannot overestimate the Internet and the site on which they decided to stop, that is, this one). I chose the route based on a single principle - places that I had long wanted to visit, but for some reason I had not visited, which turned out to be the Emine-Bair-Khosar cave, the Valley of Ghosts, the Jur-Jur waterfall and the mountains themselves; the reviews I read in advance assured me that I had chosen the route correctly. In general, I started doing all this in early spring, so that by late spring my husband was ready to go camping))

Let's begin... as agreed, the meeting place was the Simferopol station and by the time we got there there was already a sufficient crowd of people there, more than I expected, but then the conductors appeared and began to divide us into two parts, we, in turn, divided the food and stuffed it into our backpacks (one thing was spinning in our heads - take as much as we should, but not grab too much))). In this fascinating and dividing process, it turned out that two people in our group were missing, and our guide Vladimir began to actively look for them by telephone and found... a meter away from us, they had joined Taras’ group. In general, having figured out who was going where with whom, we headed to the minibus, which brought us to Perevalnoye, the last civilization for the next 6 days.

The route was supposed to start with the famous Donkey, for which I had mentally prepared myself at home, well, firstly, comrades, don’t relax - there will be more than one such “donkey” on the way and it is far from the worst, and secondly, we still had to get to it, which is what we did in the first place - we climbed up for about 20 minutes (maybe more - the warm-up is quite impressive), to the spring where we acquired the first supplies of water and for the first time together We had lunch, and while preparing a simple dinner we began to get to know each other.

Here, it’s probably worth writing about our hiking company. There were 8 of us, i.e. 4 couples (in the sense of boy-girl, boy-girl) - two couples from Ukraine (Kyiv) and 2 from Russia (Moscow and Vyatka). In principle, everyone was approximately the same age with plus or minus the same hiking capabilities. No, well, the boys, of course, were stronger, Slava stood out especially, who walked “ahead of the rest of the planet” despite the fact that he was constantly carrying a lot of water, a public pot and two canvas raincoats (the advisability of taking them was discussed more than once during the hike))), while he ran to where he needed to throw off his backpack, went down and took Kira’s backpack to unload it. While Slava and Seryozha were moving at a very brisk pace, Kira and I most often “grazed the rear”, but I want to say right away that you shouldn’t try to catch up with the one who is walking faster - catch your comfortable pace in it and go, it will be more useful and you will have enough strength for longer. Sometimes, of course, I lagged behind on purpose, for example, to admire nature, or in the process of collecting herbs on the yayls, and then I caught up with the 8 backpacks on legs in front.

An extraordinary advantage was that no one whined about fatigue, the difficulty of the route and did not demand a change in the route towards an easier one. (Although I think the secret is simple - everyone complained, but just to each other, “within the family”) Among us there were no smokers and no one thirsty for beer or other hot and recreational drinks, we got up early, walked quickly.....))) In the end, the plan was fulfilled and exceeded))) Perhaps to some our “health group” would seem very boring, but looking from my bell tower - a person going on a hike, actually for the sake of the hike, this company was chosen very successfully.

Let's return to the “Donkey”... what is the exact name... – we are laden, under the scorching sun, in a long line stretching upward. And here is the first view from any height, naturally a “photo shoot” and a halt (integral components of the path) and a coming feeling of Crimea itself. And then we hit the road again, climb the Lower Chatyr-Dag plateau, along which we reached our first stop. She was supposed to be (based on the information on the website) in some kind of cave, but Vladimir (our guide, if I haven’t already mentioned this) said that everything there had long been polluted by vacationers, and there was no point in going there. Maybe this is for the best, since our parking spot turned out to be very beautiful, in a hollow, and everything around was green (since I live in a new residential area, where there is no greenery at all, almost any vegetation in the aggregate, which is a forest, meadow, etc., brings me wild delight).

Having quickly set up camp (we never had any problems with this, everyone was able to put up a tent), having warmed ourselves up, we rushed to an excursion to the Emine-Bair-Khosar cave. I will not describe all this beauty, but I will only recommend that those who have not been there definitely go. This may seem strange, but I was more impressed not by the stalactites and stalagmites, not by the lakes, but by the view from below of the natural entrance to the cave (the only thing missing was the head of a dinosaur looking into it). Time, as the guides told us, flies faster in caves than on the surface, and they didn’t deceive us - the hour and a half excursion felt like it lasted half an hour. Returning from the cave, we waited for our stew dinner and, after talking briefly, went to our tents and went to bed early.

The morning also started early... for everyone, I think in most cases, for the same reason as for me - they were cold. By the time we crawled out of the tents and began to get ready, breakfast was already waiting for us - porridge, which Vladimir had prepared ahead of time, and in general he cooked everything for us all the time (for which we thank him very much), and only cutting sandwiches for lunch fell on our shoulders. As for food, everything would be fine, the classic omnivore on a hike, I think, awakens in everyone, but morning porridge was some kind of test for me, no matter how I didn’t sprinkle it with sugar, didn’t wash it down with tea, it didn’t suit me, it didn’t suit me. (as opposed to dinners and lunches). By the way, there was a puncture with the sugar, they forgot to add saccharin and a small amount of sugar had to be spread out over all days, mainly for porridges, and they tried to drink tea without sugar.

Our second day began with “water procedures” by the stream. Just about half an hour from the parking lot and that’s happiness. Since the dirt on the body had been clearly felt since yesterday evening, the low water temperature did not in any way affect the desire to find cleanliness of the body (by the way, not for long at all) and good spirits (it was enough for a longer period). Our path lay in Yew Gorge. And here I saw such nature that I did not associate with Crimea in any way (in principle, the view of Crimea from a beach lounger is very different from the view from the mountains) - tall beeches and yews, stone crevices, fallen trees - all this, for some reason, brought to mind thoughts of some kind of prehistoric period (again, there were not enough small herbivorous dinosaurs on “chicken legs” chewing peacefully greens).

Coming out of the shady forest, I noticed that we were gaining altitude. The landscapes were simply stunning - pleasantly green, soft-looking mountain slopes, a little more along the path along a rocky cliff and we were at the foot of the upper plateau of Chatyr-Dag - Mount Angar Burun was our goal. And then it began... the climb was not easy. At first I walked from “goal” to “goal”, which were stones piled up in heaps and small trees, but after going a third of the way, the climb in my performance looked like - I take 5 steps and stand, 5 steps I take - I stand... I was glad that thanks to the wind, the scorching sun did not feel that way. This was the only place where the thought “well, why torture yourself like this?” flashed through my head, flashed and never appeared again, despite the fact that this was not the last difficult climb.

Having climbed to the top, before falling to the ground to rest, I still had to run back and forth behind a seat that had been torn off by the wind from my backpack, making intricate grasping movements.))) The continuation of the journey was very predictable. After admiring the landscape from a bird's eye view, a descent awaited us - a very steep and long one. Basically, at some point, I began to think that on the way up it wasn’t so bad... just think, I was breathing harder, but now I was breathing very easily, but my legs were simply trembling from fatigue, I especially felt this when I stopped (it was not only felt, it was clearly visible). During the descent, my legs began to slide down the scree of stones and pebbles in a heavy cloud of thick dust. That’s what I did and caught myself with a track stick. By the end of the descent, I was incredibly glad and happy and had two cottony legs (like after epidural anesthesia), which were already weakly able to carry out my commands.

And again lunch, tea, rest and forward. It was surprising for me that I never crashed on the descent, which is probably why I crashed after lunch and rest out of the blue. I dropped my entire body plus my backpack onto one knee, which, thank God, didn’t break, but it did break. Further our path lay to the Angarsk Pass. Since almost everyone had an obsession with swimming (both because of the heat and the dirt), the news that Kutuzovskoe Lake, which we would be walking past, had not yet dried up made me happy... but only until the moment we walked to it. The lake was nothing more than a warm puddle overgrown with algae, so after wetting our feet, resting on the shore, eating a couple of barberries, and re-sticking the band-aid, we moved on.

As we descended, signs of civilization appeared - a paved road, a store. We crossed the highway to Alushta and another climb awaited us - everyone turned on the autopilot and silently stomped to the appointed place. The parking spot was again very beautiful - between two streams in the forest (the streams, of course, were “thin” in terms of the amount of water, but they gurgled very soothingly), and nearby there was an open clearing overlooking the sea and Demerzhi. It was there that we went the next morning.

We reached the saddle of Demerdzhi, and then it was decided to explore the surroundings lightly, so leaving our weighty belongings in the bushes, we moved up... and up and up until a simply breathtaking view opened up in front of us... The view of the Valley of Ghosts (it’s a pity, of course, that I didn’t walk along it below, but still this in no way diminishes the pleasure received from contemplation from above.) The height and beauty were breathtaking.

Again, not exactly what in my mind was associated with the concept of the Crimean Mountains - again it smelled of prehistoricity (and for some reason I associated it with North America)) - sharpened, tower-like rocks, between which are green small trees and large birds soaring below. It’s useless to describe it (since I don’t have great literary abilities to convey this beauty), you need to go, climb and look at it. Having sat at the edge of the abyss (when someone approached the very edge, I closed my eyes in fear), we went further for impressions - our destination was Northern Demerdzhi. Here we took a walk, peering through the light clouds at the vineyards spread below, and, naturally, could not help but climb to the highest point, marked in the Soviet red flag, once again experiencing a mixture of fear from heights and pleasure from beauty, looking through binoculars (borrowed from the guy sitting there) on the coast, we returned to the saddle.

And then lunch awaited us and not just a halt, but a rest for probably an hour or more of afternoon wallowing with conversations and falling asleep... And again we hit the road. This time our goal is the Khapkhal Gorge - in my opinion, the most beautiful part of the route. And again a steep descent awaited us, it was in a beech forest, so the entire slope was simply riddled with the roots of trees, which kept sticking out everywhere, and again there were screes of small stones, plus we would add fallen trees that we had to climb over, in general, as we descended, our legs became weaker and weaker, and the nature became more and more beautiful, we found ourselves lower and lower, and the noise of the river became louder and louder.

And finally here it is, the real mountain river Ulu-Uzen. On her way there were waterfalls and overflows of various sizes. The water was so clear that if it weren’t for the current, one would think that it didn’t exist at all. I walked along the river and enjoyed nature. The parking spot was the most beautiful of the entire trip. It was a slope surrounded by tall trees and boulders, tents were set up one or two at a time on small, relatively flat areas. This place was also the coziest and most watery, because... this time there was at least plenty of water, it was possible to swim, wash and drink (at least at the same time), but there was one thing... the water was 8 degrees, so what we were swimming was probably heard by the entire Khapkhal Gorge.

The river itself is quite shallow, but in some places there are swimming pools, but since there was literally a queue of our fellow hikers lined up at the nearest deep one, Sergei and I decided to “take a bath” without a queue and closer to the “accommodation”. In my eagerness to swim, I was enough to reach the waterfall and take a photo, at this point I stopped feeling my legs, and there was still the actual swimming, which was like some kind of chaotic floundering in water (knee-deep) to the sound of my own screams calling for my mother to help me from the cold))). It lasted about two minutes, but everything managed to freeze. By the time the water procedures were over, darkness and dinner were already approaching, so we warmed up with a stewed vermicelli dinner and awesome herbal tea and were ready for another swim, but in the morning.

Speaking of tea - probably everyone has it in the summer with the addition of herbs, but we soon stopped using tea altogether and almost all the time we just drank thyme with lemongrass and rose hips, and we also prepared tea (contrary to the information on the website) for lunch. This time after dinner we stayed a little longer than usual, and after a debate on politics between us and the Muscovites, we peacefully went to bed to the insistent sound of the river.

Every day it became more and more difficult and reluctant to get up, but still every day we left at about eight or nine. As we had planned in the morning, we took a swim (in a deeper pool) and, invigorated by the icy water, walked along the river to Jur-Jur. This time I deliberately fell behind to take a walk alone with nature and suddenly caught up with everyone at once. Because everyone was hanging on a huge boulder above the river (that’s how it looked from the outside), or rather they were climbing on it, so it was some kind of obstacle on our way. Actually, I can’t say that it was difficult, but when you climb on slippery stones, and below there is nothing but a fast-flowing, very shallow river and the backpack somehow pulls back from time to time, the sensations are ticklish.

After overcoming such an intricate obstacle, our path was interrupted for some time at the Jur-Jur Waterfall, since it was not yet late in the morning, people from the coast had not yet had time to arrive in large numbers. Having examined this attraction from below and from above, we set off again (the waterfall did not impress me as much as the river as a whole). At the exit we were charged 15 UAH for visiting the above-mentioned natural monument. We took water again and set off, Ai-Alexy was already waiting for us.

Having passed through the “pioneer camp” (tents and children in large numbers, outdoor games, socially useful work - this is the right childhood) we came out onto a path along which we walked measuredly until the moment when we were stopped by guardians of forest order who came from out of nowhere, who began to demand a bribe from us in the amount of 4 UAH per person for walking along tourist trails, with a special emphasis on paper with a stamp. But noticing the unrest among the masses, they began to bargain, bringing down the price for trampling the protected area. Having received their 30 UAH and having written out receipts for us, the foresters went to measure something, and we went to the source - and what a shame - near the source itself and in the clearing we were met by garbage, in some places in piles (it’s a pity that the money knocked off tourists does not go to something useful (garbage removal), but apparently for half a liter, in general, as always, “it’s a shame for the state.”

After having lunch and resting in the shady forests at our immediate pace through the Likon pass, we went to the Nefan-Uzen spring (our overnight stop), which we arrived at much earlier than planned, so there was plenty of time for washing, walking, and gatherings. The place was soulful, the only thing that somewhat spoiled it was the frequent occurrence of horse manure. Everything went according to the “established” rules: water treatments by the stream in order, sunbathing on a slope overlooking the sea and mountains (before the first invasion of some insects), we also found ripe strawberries on the same slope, collecting firewood (I collected something wrong), and so it came to dinner (this time our stewed days were brightened up by sardines).

Perhaps it was the longest and most fun evening - we played crocodile (pantomime), which brought a lot of fun and joy. The night was quite warm, and in the morning I didn’t want to get up at all. And again the porridge and again packing and again on the road. There were no ascents and descents, but there were bushes... these terrible, thorny bushes (beautiful, of course, but impractical), yes, they scratched, but even more, they just got on your nerves, clinging to everything and tearing them apart. In general, since we left early and walked quickly enough, we fulfilled the “plan” and exceeded it, so it was decided to go on a hike again without backpacks (which we again hid in the bushes) to Mount Yasan-Katran-Tepe, which we got as a “bonus”)))

The absence of a backpack, of course, made the climb somewhat easier, but in general the situation did not change - it was damn hard to walk! We climbed along, one might say, historical paths - the remains of a paved road many centuries ago, another trade route. As we climbed, we took rests and snacked on dried apricots and dates, it was very hot, I felt both hard and at the same time sorry that this was the last climb of this trip and in general this wonderful event was coming to its logical conclusion. Having reached the top, we came across another source in the form of a well, the inscription on the lid of which said that the water in it should not be muddied with cauldrons and feet, which we naturally refused (due to the lack of a cauldron and the need to wash our feet)).

There are many springs in Crimea and they are all different and the water in them is different and very tasty, but this is the only one in which the water had some specific, swampy taste. The last (in this hike) look from above, looking at the places we passed with clear examples in the distance and descending through the Big Gate to the place where our backpacks were waiting for us. This more than three-hour walk lasted under the scorching sun, which made everyone very tired. Sergei and I also fell behind a little and got lost at the Slegonets fork, but “calling a friend” really helped us out and we quickly caught up with everyone.

After resting, we went down to a small lake, where we spent our last night - it was already possible to swim here, although the water was still cold. That evening we talked about the five days we spent together, about the most difficult and beautiful sections of the path, and, oddly enough, the hardest places for almost everyone turned out to be different places on different parts of the path.

The next morning was early - it was simply impossible to sleep in a tent heated by the sun. Exchange of emails, payment and through the vineyards after just a couple of hours, all in the dust we found ourselves on the seashore - backpacks piled up in a heap and we swim in the sea - and how good it is when you swim, but nothing hurts from the cold)))

And then everything was like everyone else’s farewell and Kira and Slava remained in Rybachye, Zhenya and Olga went to Nikolaevka, Anya and Misha went to Simferopol for things and to the campsite, and Sergei and I continued our journey either by sea or by land to Sevastopol...

In general, the hike is simply wonderful, a lot of impressions, mostly all positive (of the negative ones, a couple of calluses and a broken knee, which simply pale in comparison with the positive ones, and maybe I would also like to hear more about the places there in more intelligible stories) But in general, the guide, the company and the route are all excellent.

Just a couple of tips for those who (if any) will read this before their first hike. Regarding shoes, this is probably the most important thing. If you are walking in sandals (even if these are sandals that you have been walking in for a long time and they have never rubbed you, as it actually happened to me), immediately put on socks - dust and small pebbles get between the sole of the sandal and your sweaty foot, and all this sooner or later leads to the appearance of calluses (I got them on the third day, on the sole). In general, it’s good to have trekking shoes - believe me, on a steep descent you can really feel the difference when you change from regular sports sandals to vibram sandals. That’s when you understand what’s “the fun” and why they cost so much.

Regarding the first aid kit - take a lot, no, a lot of plaster, and a good one (your feet are wet and dusty, the plaster sticks poorly and falls off before it should) Regarding poles - they personally helped me a lot on the descents and ascents. Regarding sugar - if tea with sugar is very important to you, take yourself a little sugar, otherwise forgetting sugar, as I understand it, is not an isolated case)))))

P.S. Thanks to the organizers, conductor Vladimir and, of course, the whole walking company for the soulful pastime)))))

Tatyana Adronova, Kyiv 2009